The single turnover of (1R)(؉)-camphor-bound oxyferrous cytochrome P450-CAM with one equivalent of dithionite-reduced putidaredoxin (Pdx) was monitored for the appearance of transient intermediates at 3°C by double mixing rapid scanning stopped-flow spectroscopy. With excess camphor, three successive species were observed after generating oxyferrous P450-CAM and reacting versus reduced Pdx: a perturbed oxyferrous derivative, a species that was a mixture of high and low spin Fe(III), and high spin ferric camphor-bound enzyme. The rates of the first two steps, ϳ140 and ϳ85 s
؊1, were assigned to formation of the perturbed oxyferrous intermediate and to electron transfer from reduced Pdx, respectively. In the presence of stoichiometric substrate, three phases with similar rates were seen even though the final state is low spin ferric P450-CAM. This is consistent with substrate being hydroxylated during the reaction. The single turnover reaction initiated by adding dioxygen to a preformed reduced P450-CAM⅐Pdx complex with excess camphor also led to phases with similar rates. It is proposed that formation of the perturbed oxyferrous intermediate reflects alteration of H-bonding to the proximal Cys, increasing the reduction potential of the oxyferrous state and triggering electron transfer from reduced Pdx. This species may be a direct spectral signature of the effector role of Pdx on P450-CAM reactivity (i.e. during catalysis). The substrate-free oxyferrous enzyme also reacted readily with reduced Pdx, showing that the inability of substratefree P450-CAM to accept electrons from reduced Pdx and function as an NADH oxidase is completely due to the incapacity of reduced Pdx to deliver the first but not the second electron.The cytochrome P-450 family of heme-containing mono-oxygenases is involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics and in the production of physiologically important molecules (1). A defining characteristic of the P-450 family is the proximal thiolate-ligated heme. P450-CAM (P450-CAM, CYP101) 3 from Pseudomonas putida catalyzes the hydroxylation of (1R)(ϩ)-camphor to form (1R)(ϩ)-5-exo-hydroxycamphor (Reaction 1). The electrons required for the reaction flow from NADH to the flavoprotein, putidaredoxin reductase, then to the iron-sulfur (2Fe/2S) protein, putidaredoxin (Pdx), and finally to P450-CAM. In the widely quoted P450 reaction cycle shown in Fig. 1 (1), substrate binding converts the ferric low spin resting state (1) to the ferric high spin form (2). Electron transfer from reduced Pdx gives high spin deoxyferrous P-450 (3). Dioxygen binding yields the oxy-ferrous adduct, a ferrous-O 2 /ferric superoxide resonance hybrid (4a 7 4b). CO binding to 3 generates the ferrous-CO derivative (5). Addition of the second electron from reduced Pdx has been proposed to yield a ferric peroxo species (6a), protonation of which gives the hydroperoxo state (6b). Protonation of the distal oxygen produces water and compound I, a ferryl porphyrin -cation radical (7). This highly oxidizing intermediate abstracts a hydrogen...